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.S.Gvozdev and I.Fedorov (1732) and V.I.Bering and A.I.Chirikov[92], (2)23 (1728, 1741 42).It was with the Second Kamchatka Expedition that Bering24 and Chirikov found the coast of Southeast Alaska in June 1741, and thereby25 began the history of Russian America.226 At the same time, the first encounter occurred between the Russians and27 Tlingit.At 57° 50 north latitude two Tlingit boats approached the packet28 boat St.Pavel, commanded by Chirikov, but contact between the Russians29 and Indians was purely visual, since the Tlingit did not tie up to the ship,30 and only by voice and gestures did they invite the Russians to follow them to31 the shore (several days earlier a boat and a launch with 15 sailors disappeared32 on this shore without so much as a trace; their fate is unknown to this day)33 (Lebedev 1951:51 60; Svet and Fedorova 1971).The Dauenhauers suggest that34 the cries of the Tlingit who were in the boat that approached the packet boat35 St.Pavel Agai! Agai! was probably the call Ai kaa! (meaning Row! )36 (Dauenhauer and Dauenhauer 1987b:436).37 Some authors suggest with more or less assurance that Captain Chirikov s38 men, who disembarked on the American shore, were ambushed and killed by39 the Tlingit (Barbeau 1958:18, 76; Gibson 1992:12; Kan 1999:34; Pierce 1990:118).92 History of Tlingit Relations in Russian America 1 Though this hypothesis has every right to be stated, it is doubtful that the2 Indians could deal with the very well-armed visitors: the Russians had not3 only rifles, pistols, and sabers but even a small copper cannon and two signal4 rockets.Modern Tlingit tell a more convincing version of the fate of Chirikov s5 men.According to them, the Russian sailors who landed on the shore of6 Kruzof Island seeking fresh water did not return to their ship; their reason7 was simply that cruelty and oppression prevailed on board.The fugitives were8 amicably accepted by the local Tlingit and they married Indian women.How-9 ever, fearing that sooner or later another Russian ship would arrive and they10 would be hanged or executed as deserters, the Russian sailors loaded canoes and11 went south with their families.Their descendants headed the most prestigious12 families in the village of Klawock of the Henya kwáan on Prince of Wales[93], (3)13 Island (Jacobs 1990:3).In fact, the first Spaniards to visit here saw a fragment14 of a Russian bayonet among the local Indians.At the beginning of the 20thLines: 37 to15 century the schoolteacher O.M.Salisbury stated that the chief of the Klawock16 village was a certain Robert Peratovich a Tlingit whose name unquestionably 17 indicated his Russian origins (Salisbury 1962:57).0pt Pg 18 A short time after Captain Chirikov reached Alaska, the ship St.Petr, underNormal Pag19 Commander Bering, arrived on the American shore at Kayak Island (59° 40PgEnds: TEX20 north latitude).The Russian sailors landed on the island, where they found a21 hut and some of the Natives everyday objects, but the Russians were unable22 to make contact with the Natives (Russkie ekspeditsii, 1984:263, 271 272).In[93], (3)23 Averkieva s opinion, the local inhabitants would have to have been Tlingit24 (Averkieva 1974:141).However, information about the first Russian voyagers25 who visited this region after Bering, as well as 20th-century archaeological26 excavations, refute this assertion (Johansen 1963:873 874; Shelikhov 1971:96).27 The Natives who had come to Kayak Island at the time of the Bering Expedi-28 tion were probably Chugach Eskimos or Eyak Indians.29 Upon their return to the homeland, the crews of the Second Kamchatka30 Expedition s two packet boats had visited the Kodiak Island region and the31 Aleutian Islands.From this difficult and dangerous voyage the sailors brought32 a multitude of skins of fur-bearing animals, including several hundred sea otter33 skins, the fur being in high demand in China.34 The valuable furs and sailors stories about discovering lands to the east35 interested the Kamchatka mariners, merchants, and promyshlenniki. Rumor36 of this newly discovered land s wealth, wrote the prominent Russian historian37 V.N.Berkh, excited the enterprising Siberian merchants, and the stories of38 Bering s and Chirikov s companions inflamed even more their desire to become39 rich in sea otter skins (Berkh 1823:1).As early as 1743 the first ship set out onHistory of Tlingit Relations in Russian America 93 1 business for an island that had been named Bering Island ; others followed,2 opening up new islands and moving ever farther to the east along the Aleutian3 chain.4 The Russians spent about forty years colonizing the Aleutian Islands.The5 local Aleuts were conquered and then overwhelmed with taxes.All resistance6 was suppressed, often with great cruelty (Khlebnikov 1979:86 90, 144).From7 the free and warlike people the Aleuts were when the Europeans arrived (Lia-8 punova 1987:85 86), they were transformed into a dependent people without9 rights, about whom P.N.Golovin wrote, Now the Aleuts are the meekest10 people, and it can be said, crushed in spirit (Golovin 1863a:6:292).The Aleuts11 complaints to the czarist government about oppression and subjugation by12 Russian promyshlenniki went unanswered.Their destiny (and that of the[94], (4)13 inhabitants of Kodiak Island later) was to do the difficult and dangerous work14 of hunting sea otters on the water, practically as slaves to the Russian colonialLines: 4315 authority.Under the influence of colonization the traditional Aleut culture16 changed.At the same time, the Russians gladly used some elements of it, 17 primarily the skills of baidarka (see glossary) hunting for sea mammals that had 0.0pt 18 been refined for centuries.The subjugated Aleuts were formed into baidarkaNormal19 flotillas hunting parties under the leadership of Russian promyshlenniki.InPgEnds:20 1784 the Ryl sk merchant Grigorii I.Shelikhov established a colony on Kodiak21 Island that served as a base for further investigation and the opening up of22 Southeast Alaska.From here the Russians undertook hunting-trading expedi-[94], (4)23 tions in various directions and sooner or later had to encounter the Tlingit.241.3.The Spanish and the Tlingit (1775 91)2526 The Russians success in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean alarmed the27 Spanish government, which had claimed the entire western coast of America.28 In 1774 the viceroy of New Spain, Marquis A.M.Bucareli, equipped a naval29 expedition to the northwestern coast of the North American mainland.How-30 ever, this expedition s vessels did not reach Southeast Alaska.It was not until31 the next year that the crew of the schooner Sonora succeeded in reaching the32 Alexander Archipelago, making the first direct contact with the Tlingit.33 First, a schooner commanded by a royal military fleet lieutenant, Juan Fran-34 cisco de la Bodega y Quadra, investigated Bucareli Bay on the western shore35 of Prince of Wales Island, where the Spanish encountered Kaigani Indians and36 possibly Tlingit of the Henya kwáan.Then the Sonora turned to the north and37 reached Baranof Island.The navigator of the expedition, F.A.Maurelle, noted38 in his journal such geographic objects as San Jacinto Mountain (Edgecumbe),39 Cabo del Engaño (Cape Edgecumbe), and Ensenada del Justo (Sitka Bay).94 History of Tlingit Relations in Russian America 1 When the Spanish landed on the shore, they noted several Indian (Tlingit)2 warriors hiding not far from a house fortified by a palisade
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